Partnerships Report

Partnerships

The purpose of this report is to discuss and evaluate the different types of partnerships, such as marriage, cohabitation, same sex relationships, one person households and the extended family.

One type of partnership is marriage which is the legal joining of a couple that exists because of the law and religion. In 2350 B.C. Mesopotamia, the first ever marriage ceremony was recorded and archived. [1] According to the Eurostat website and the data they collected from May 2014, marriage rates have decreased rapidly from 1970 to 2010,[2]but another source states that the number of marriages in England and Wales have increased by 5.3% from 249,133 in 2011, to 262,240 in 2012. [3] Despite this increase, the overall marriage rate has decreased from 1971, when the Divorce Reform Act was put in place. Feminists would argue that marriage would maintain patriarchy, so more women aren't getting married as they want to keep their own freedom and power.

The second type of partnership is cohabitation which is where two people live in the same household without being married, but they are in an emotionally/sexually intimate relationship. [4] According to one source, in 1986, Francois Mitterrand of France decided to remain president, hence, starting the first cohabitation. [5] In 2012, approximately 5.9 million people were cohabiting in the UK, which was said to be double the 1996 figure. As well as this, it's said to be the fastest growing family type in the UK as the percentage of people 16 and over increased from 6.5% in 1996 to 11.7% in 2012 [6] According to one source, 'Those who live together before marriage are the least likely to marry each other'. This comes from a study that Columbia University conducted in New Woman magazine; they found that only 26% of women and 19% of men that were surveyed were married with the person they were cohabiting with. [7]

The third type of partnership is same sex marriage, which is when two partners of the same sex get...